No Buzz: Aldrin Trashes Obama Asteroid Mission

Photo Credit: US NewsThe second man to set foot on the moon wants to see NASA send people further into space than he ever traveled. Buzz Aldrin trashed NASA’s plan to bring an asteroid into lunar orbit in a speech, advocating for a Mars colony.

Aldrin, who recently published the book “Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration,” said at the Washington, D.C. Humans to Mars summit Wednesday that President Barack Obama’s asteroid mining plan is merely a distraction.

“Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What’s that have to do with space exploration?” he asked. “If we were moving outward from there and an asteroid is a good stopping point, then fine. But now it’s turned into a whole planetary defense exercise at the cost of our outward exploration.”

The Apollo-era astronaut, now 83, has devised a plan to “cycle” spacecraft to Mars, continually launching humans to the red planet to expand on its colony. Aldrin advocates using Phobos, a moon of Mars, as a sort of home base for landing on the planet.

“Going to Mars means permanence, we’d become a two planet species. In Mars, we’ve been given a wonderful set of moons … where we can send continuous numbers of people,” he said. The trips would be one-way.

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